shotgun

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a smoothbore firearm designed to fire cartridges containing many small pellets or a single slug

   She told them to send a farmhand to the barn with a shotgun.

2. 2
   noun

   the front passenger seat of a vehicle

   Maya called shotgun before anyone else reached the car.

3. 3
   noun

   a narrow house whose rooms are arranged one behind another without a hallway

   The family restored a nineteenth-century shotgun in New Orleans.

Common collocations

• shotgun shell Noun + noun

A compound of shot and gun, originally naming a firearm that projects shot rather than a single bullet. The front-seat sense comes from ride shotgun, referring to an armed guard seated beside the driver of a stagecoach. The origin of the shotgun-house name is disputed.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images